The presenter of my favourite podcast, ‘Don’t tell me the score’, refers to sport as a metaphor for life and I am with him on this one. So where does that leave us all in the wake of the racist abuse that emerged following the Euros final between England and Italy?

This was the first time in 55 years that the English mens football team had reached the final of a major tournament. It should have been a cause for celebration all around the country, and for very many people this was indeed the case. However there are exceptions to every rule and so things did not always go smoothly on the night of the game. Gaining access to the stadium was a scary experience for a lot of people and there was a report that some Italian fans were attacked when they celebrated their teams goal. And then there was the penalty shootout.

The England manager Gareth Southgate chose the five players to take the penalties for his side. Two of the five, Harry Kane and Harry Maguire, were white. The remaining three, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were black. As fate would have it the two white men scored their spot kicks and all three black players did not. All of which served to unleash racist abuse across the streets and pubs of England, as well as on social media.

Irish people are not all that different to our neighbours across the water which means that there is plenty of racism lurking beneath the surface of our own shores.

The whole thing defies logic.